THE Tory assault on youth services is wrecking life chances and fuelling anti-social behaviour, according to a Unison report released today.

A Future at Risk found that a staggering £387 million has been axed from youth services across Britain and 600 youth centres have been shut in the six years since the Tories came to power in 2010.

The report, based on surveys of youth workers and freedom of information requests to councils, found that Tory austerity had led to the axing of 3,600 staff posts and the removal of a staggering 140,000 places for young people since the Con-Dem coalition took office.

Unison warned that youth services face a “bleak” future as, over the next two years, the union predicts another £26 million more cuts in youth spending, resulting in 45,000 more youth places being lost and the culling of another 800 jobs and 30 centres.

Unison general secretary Dave Prentis warned that youth services had been “relentlessly cut and undermined at a time when they are needed more than ever.”

He said that cuts were “damaging young people’s life chances, especially those from poorer backgrounds, and raising the risk of mental illness as well as anti-social behaviour.”

These devastating cuts have been unleashed at a time when young people “desperately need support,” as research reveals unemployment stands at 28 per cent among 16 to 17-year-olds and 12 per cent among 18 to 24-year-olds.

Unemployment among young black people is more than double the rate for young whites, standing at 27.5 per cent for 16 to 24-year-olds.

The public-service union found that the impact of these cuts has been drastic, with nearly four in five (77 per cent) of youth workers reporting increased mental health issues.

Black Activists Rising Against the Cuts co-chairman Lee Jasper told the Star: “Ideologically driven austerity has seen the decimation of a range of front-line community services, most notably youth services.

“This has had a devastating effect on communities where black youth unemployment rates are as high as places like Greece and Gaza.”

Unison is calling for the provision of youth services to be made a statutory duty for councils, for services to be fully funded, not outsourced to private companies, and for young people to be consulted on changes.